By Amjad Yousaf Zai
TAXILA: The distant dream of clean, affordable water to over twenty thousand population of Thatta Khalil in the remote and far flung hamlet of Taxila trickles closer thanks to local social figure and philanthropist of the area.
The project worth Rs 36.449 million was approved by the Punjab government in Jan 2013 and it was to be completed in three years but only building and structure was completed on 18 marla piece of land on a land donated by local villager for provision of clean drinking water to the local dwellers of the area which mostly comprising small farmers, daily wagers and workers at local stone crusher industry. Almost ten years have passed since the initiation of the project but only 70 percent of the work has been completed and the rest of the plan, including the power supply and installation of transformer was not implemented so far so dwellers of the area who can afford water bore have carried out their own water supply while the rest of the population have no option but to fetch water from different resources.
“Although we have donated free land for execution of water supply scheme but despite the fact that many governments have come in to the power but the fate of the people were not changed, thanks to the local member parliament”. Said Ghulam Fareed. Muhammad Zaheer- another resident of area was of the view that disappointed with the bureaucratic attitude of government officials and un public friendly attitude of the elected representatives, people of the area pegged their hopes with local social figure who is executing various public friendly projects with his own resources for welfare of the people of the area.
“Water is the basic necessity of life and its availability for drinking and its availability should be ensured at all cost but the successive PTI government kept this public welfare oriented project at back burner ignoring the problem of thousands of people of poor and backward area,” Asif Malik- a resident of the area said.
It may be mentioned here that a study was undertaken to categorize suitability of groundwater for irrigation purpose in Taxila area of Rawalpindi district by soil fertility survey and soil testing institute at Arid agriculture university Rawalpindi. During the study, a total of 628 water samples were collected from nine union councils in Taxila, analyzed and categorized according to the suitability criteria of water quality evaluation. Sixty-six percent water samples were fit, 21 percent were marginally fit and 13 percent were found unfit. In majority of the union councils, water was fit for irrigation except Thatta Khalil where 20 percent of water samples were unfit due to higher electrical conductivity (EC). Residual sodium carbonate (RSC) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) were also higher in water samples. Commenting over the issue, Dr Syed Asad Ali, President Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians Taxila chapter, has said that sources of drinking water both surface and underground had become contaminated with different kind of bacteria, toxic metals and pesticides in the area. He was of the view that according to the experts, contamination of drinking water may result in stomach ailments like diarrhea and vomiting to name a few while contaminated water also causes hepatitis and skin diseases.
Munnaza Peerzada- President of local NGO which is working on human and infrastructure development in the area while commenting over making the distant dream of making functional the 10 years old water supply scheme to provide free and clean water supply to the masses of remote and far flung area true has said that in a country where according to a UN report 46 percent of the population is devoid of clean drinking water, a great initiative to provide clean water at the every person door step is an innovative and praiseworthy initiative.“Children being more prone to diseases are the ones most affected by contaminated water,” she pointed out, before adding that the unhygienic water would further worsen the situation in the area.
Social figure and philanthropist of the area who took responsibility to make functional this long delayed functional of water supply scheme, while commenting over the issue has said that it was so apathetic that in two times of day women and girls of the area by putting water bowls at their head went here and there to fetch the clan drinking water even in today’s modern era. Mr Sohail was of the view that drinking water contamination has become a major threat to public health of the area which is proved in underground water analysis carried out by the testing authorities. He said that with his own resources, provided necessary infrastructure, electric equipment and other resources to enable the system to provide clean drinking water to the inhabitants of the area.
When contacted, Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) Sub divisional officer (SDO) Ghulam Muhammad has said that the project was launched in year 2013 under annual development plan (ADP) and funds were allocated by the area member Punjab assembly for execution of project. He attributed the delay in the project to the non provision of necessary funds.
